Thank all of you for the (very positive) reviews for the last chapter and the whole story so far - and for reading, of course :)
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Max pretended to be asleep a little longer. She did not want Chloe to know that she had listened to every word spoken, because Max just knew for certain that Chloe would not want it. No. Those words, every little information Chloe had given about herself, all that was not meant to be heard by Max, and Caulfield did not insist on bringing it up again.
Instead, she just rolled a little to the left, facing Chloe, then yawning, officially announcing her now awake state.

"Hey." was all Chloe whispered, seeming sure that her monologue had stayed a mono-, not a dialogue.

"Hm." Max mumbled. "How long…?"

"About half an hour. I guess. I have no watch."

Max nodded. She didn't care about how late it was, all she knew was that it must have been around one or two o'clock.

"Max, I got… some kind of an idea, you know?"

Now interested, Max sat up in her seat.

"What's on your mind?"

Chloe exhaled.

"You know, we can't just stay this… nomadic."

Max, after a little reflection, slowly nodded.

"Yeah."

"So… I guess you know what Rachel and I had planned… we never came to fulfill our plans."

Max did not have to think, not for a second. She knew what Chloe was talking about, and she was surprised that Chloe did not avoid this topic - what, given the circumstances, would normally be completely comprehensible.

"Didn't you… want to leave Arcadia and…?" she however mumbled.

"California. You know, Rachel dreamed of L.A.. Modelling. Maybe acting. Whatever. She was born in California, and she so wanted to go back. With me. Start something
there."

Max nodded, sensitively not asking further questions - at least for some time. Then, after that time, she just couldn't hold herself back.

"And you?"

"And I?" Chloe asked totally missing what Max wanted to know. "What about me?"

"What were YOUR plans? I mean, sorry, but don't you wanna tell me that you wanted to become a model too."
Max was unsure whether Chloe would laugh about that or just freak out, but luckily, it was the first one.

"Why, 'cus I'm ugly?"

"You are not ugly…" Max tried to explain.

"Nah?" Chloe couldn't stop herself from grinning. "What makes me that, then? Beautiful? Pretty? Sexy?"

Max blushed. She normally didn't around Chloe, but Chloe normally didn't broach that matter. Luckily for her, Chloe was looking straight out of the window, and it was too dark to see that, too.

"Uhm… I just meant you don't seem like the girl dreaming of a modelling career, that's all." she saved herself.

"Ah." Chloe still had that mischievous grin on her face. "I can live with that. So…" She took a deep breath as if she'd start telling a long story now. "My plans? To cut it short, there were none."

"You had no plans?" Max exclaimed in surprise. "Like, literally zero?"

"You know me, do you?"

Max nodded.

"You probably didn't think further than leaving Arcadia Bay."

"Exactly. I was never a dreamer." the blue-haired young woman replied. "I mean… Rachel was like, totally focussed on what she was doing. She always seemed so… coordinated, planned, like she was playing a game in which she already knew the next three or four moves."

"I know what you mean."

"No, you don't." Chloe's voice corrected her, but not too sharply. "You're like Rachel. You just… I mean, when did you plan to become a photographer and go to Blackwell?

Must have been when you got out of kindergarten… or earlier?" That made Max giggle a little, but Chloe continued: "What I'm saying is, Rachel… and you… you had your plans, like always aiming for that big goal. But now look at my life."
Max wanted to disagree, but deep inside, when she thought about that, she had to admit that Chloe was somehow right; What was the driving force in Chloe? What had it been before Max had come back to Blackwell? In fact, from what Max knew, Chloe had just lived for Rachel… but never for herself. What did Chloe want, just for herself? And the fact that Max couldn't come up with an answer really pestered her.

"Yeah, right." Chloe broke the silence. "Nothing. I don't live for plans. Maybe I'm happy with what I am and what I have… or I'm just spontaneous. However, I did not have a concrete plan with Rachel… what I should do with my own life and what I wanted to achieve, to reach."

"And… now?" Max carefully asked, with a faint voice. "Do you know that now?"

"I do." was all Chloe answered - nothing more.
But Max could imagine what Chloe's motives… and wishes were. What she was living for right now. Or whom.

"So." Chloe interrupted her thoughts with a softly whispering voice. "Since we don't have the slightest goal, aim, direction, destination… California, it is?"

Max just nodded.

"We have no reason to go there." she murmured. "But we oughta do something except driving around. So, yeah, California."
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Max woke up - this time she had actually slept - the next morning. Without even a single look on any watch, she could tell it was very early in the morning, and that made her figure out that Chloe must have been driving the whole night, without a stop.
The brunette ex-student stretched her aching body, feeling that her muscles, especially her back and her neck - were tense as a consequence of her unhealthy sleeping position in the car, leaned to the side door and window.

"Hey, Max." Chloe welcomed her, actually sounding joyful and happy as the "old" Chloe Price.

"Hm." was all Max mumbled back, then brushed her hair out of her face before beginning to inspect her look in the back mirror. "I look terrible."

Chloe giggled.

"I wouldn't say terrible." she teased. "More in need of renovation."

Max couldn't help but laugh.

"Renovation?" she repeated, trying to sound as unbelieving as she could.

Which only proved that she was not born to be an actor - and that made Chloe laugh out loud again.

"Anyway, good morning. No breakfast at bed, though, because… well, because we have no bed."

Max nodded and opened the glove box to get some of the stolen snacks from the gas station. It was neither healthy nor filling, but for the moment, it was better than nothing.

"Chloe…" she then asked.

"Yeah, I'm still here."

Max smirked a little, then asked the question she wanted to ask.

"What about you? I mean... " She sighed. "When do YOU sleep?"

"I slept…"

"You slept in that motel. And that was two days ago."

"One day, okay? Today is not a full day on your worry-scale yet."

"For me, it is. What I'm saying… you need to sleep."

"I ain't tired."

Max placed a hand on Chloe's shoulder, leaned towards her, to get at least a glimpse on her eyes, which were turned on the street the truck still followed, unchanged since they had driven away from the gas station.

"But you should be." she then explained. "I mean, it's normal… and you know that you can't drive with your eyes closing every three seconds."

"Max." Chloe sighed, stretching the "A" in the word longer than usual, which made it sound reproachful.

"No, don't give me that tone now. You need to go to sleep. So you do. Stop when it's next possible."

Chloe now looked quite surprised, even though Max had said that in a calm tone, not yelling at her.

"Uhm… okay, General Caulfield?"

Max giggled.

"I'm sorry for sounding like I'm your m…"

She stopped her words. No, she could not say that to Chloe. She just couldn't - it was inappropriate, and she had experienced that in the diner already. She knew it, since Chloe had just lost her mother… and Max told herself to be even more careful with her words - after rewinding to erase the anger Chloe had on her face since she, of course, knew what Max was just about to say.
Which Max then reluctantly did.